ctor, with childish pertinence.

"Ay," said Aaron, with a laugh, "that's it." The miners were all
stirring now, to take part in the discussion.

"What do I call the common good?" repeated the landlady. "That all
people should study the welfare of other people, and not only their
own."

"They are not to study their own welfare?" said the doctor.

"Ah, that I did not say," replied the landlady. "Let them study their
own welfare, and that of others also."

"Well then," said the doctor, "what is the welfare of a collier?"

"The welfare of a collier," said the landlady, "is that he shall earn
sufficient wages to keep himself and his family comfortable, to educate
his children, and to educate himself; for that is what he wants,
education."

"Ay, happen so," put in Brewitt, a big, fine, good-humoured collier.
"Happen so, Mrs. Houseley. But what if you haven't got much education,
to speak of?"

"You can always get it," she said patronizing.

"Nay--I'm blest if you can. It's no use tryin' to educate a man over
forty--not by book-learning. That isn't saying he's a fool, neither."

"And what better is them that's got education?" put in another
man. "What better is the manager, or th' under-manager, than we
are?--Pender's yaller enough i' th' face."

"He is that," assented the men in chorus.

"But because he's yellow in the face, as you say, Mr. Kirk," said the
landlady largely, "that doesn't mean he has no advantages higher than
what you have got."

"Ay," said Kirk. "He can ma'e more money than I can--that's about a' as
it comes to."

"He can make more money," said the landlady. "And when he's made it, he
knows better how to use it."

"'Appen so, an' a'!--What does he do, more than eat and drink and
work?--an' take it out of hisself a sight harder than I do, by th' looks
of him.--What's it matter, if he eats a bit more or drinks a bit more--"

"No," reiterated the landlady. "He not only eats and drinks. He can
read, and he can converse."

"Me an' a'," said Tom Kirk, and the men burst into a laugh. "I can
read--an' I've had many a talk an' conversation with you in this house,
Mrs. Houseley--am havin' one at this minute, seemingly."

"SEEMINGLY, you are," said the landlady ironically. "But do you
think there would be no difference between your conversation, and Mr.
Pender's, if he were here so that I could enjoy his conversation?"

"An' what difference would there be?" asked Tom Kirk. "He'd go home to
his be